


A Smile Like Fire

by SoThisIsAThingIWrote



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 06:42:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21387799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoThisIsAThingIWrote/pseuds/SoThisIsAThingIWrote
Summary: Mana remembers. And doesn't remember. And wonders about the future.
Relationships: Atem/Mana (Yu-Gi-Oh), Atem/Priest Seto, Mana/Priest Seto
Kudos: 10





	A Smile Like Fire

Every morning the old woman leaves her a basket of food. Bread and figs, clay jugs full of frothy beer, strips of dried meat Mana has to chew ferociously. It’s simple fare, and digging into a rough hewn basket is about as far from the sumptuously laden tables of the palace as one could get, but Mana doesn’t mind. Wandering the garden with the basket on her hip, occasionally reaching in to extract a fig and munch contentedly as the sun rises over the mudbrick walls, brings her back to her childhood; early morning kitchen raids, hiding in the royal gardens, lips and cheeks stained with juice as she and -

Mana pauses, fig halfway to her mouth, as his name slips from her thoughts like smoke through a crack, gone before she could catch it.

-as she and the prince whispered and tried to stifle their laughter from the keen ears of Shimon.

She drops the fig back into the basket, appetite gone. For ten years it had been the same. She can remember some things; his face, the smile like fire that would spread to his eyes and before you knew it you were following him wherever he would lead. Some nights she’s sure she can hear his laughter in her dreams, but the name-

Such a _clever_ bit of sorcery, so devastatingly _precise_, to slip into their minds and carve out a single piece.

_“And to think,” Set had said flatly, hammer and chisel in his hands, gazing at the beautiful relief in whose creation he could find no pleasure, “he did that at the moment of his death. What would he have become if he’d had the chance?”_

_And Mana, who had barely come into her own magic, could only stare at the empty cartouche on the stone and grieve a boy who months ago had been practicing by her side, a boy who’d gone from student to saviour with barely a breath in between._

All magic has a cost. That was the first lesson Mahad taught her.

Mana shifts the basket on her hip. Soon, she’ll be too big to rest it comfortably. She turns and heads back into the cool shelter of indoors, out of the morning sun already burning bright. To the rest of the world, she has withdrawn from palace life to strengthen her magic. A year spent in study, and she will return to serve the pharaoh a better high priest than before. Only Mana knows the truth for certain, though she suspects the old woman must know by now as well.

It was kindness and cruelty both, that left Mana and Set the rest of their memories. To all the rest of the court and country, the spell cut deep and true, and when the dark clouds had cleared, so too had any recollection of the demon and the boy king. Or perhaps it was sheer stubbornness on both of their parts.

Or love.

She’s never asked Set and Set has never spoken of it, but she’s seen the look in his eyes when the year turns and the Nile floods again and the anniversary of those dark days passes without a pause in the kingdom, except for the dismissal of the court by the Pharaoh, who spends the day alone, save for the company of one high priest.

They drink, they share memories, they laugh and curse and marvel that two people who were barely even aware of each other before should suddenly be the only two to know what really happened after.

_Only this year, they drank too much, and tried to take two broken hearts and form one whole heart out of the pieces for just one night._

When Mana felt the first stirrings of life she saddled a horse and rode south to the near forgotten temple of her youth, where once long ago the aged priest of the Sennen Ring and his young apprentice had stumbled across a small girl playing at magic in the courtyard. There she had stayed, tending to the temple and pretending to be engaged in deep study as life steadily grew inside her.

Mana rests her hand on her rounding stomach. She wonders at the path this child will take. Back to the palace to inherit the crown of his father? Or will she be hers alone, to learn at her knee the memories she carries? Or will they journey far from either of them, from Egypt itself, carried by the currents of fate and pursued by destiny.

Mana feels the baby kick under her hand. Acceptance or defiance, she doesn’t know.

**Author's Note:**

> Oooh boy it's been a while. I blame DSOD for stirring up feelings and shoving me back into Yugioh fanfiction. Since we are never explicitly told that Seto, Yugi, Bakura are reincarnations or descendants, my headcanon tends to wander...
> 
> Also, hey, I've started a tumblr for more random drabbles, meta and headcanon musing! Not much there but if you are so inclined you can check it out at https://sothisisathingiwrote.tumblr.com/


End file.
